Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide for Reeves County, Trans-Pecos, Big Bend of West Texas

The Pecos Independent and Enterprise

Feb, 5, 1962

Department of Labor again turns
thumbs down on Bracero drivers

Members of the Trans-Pecos Cotton Association were advised by letter from the Association Friday that a third application for hardship exception allowing Mexican national laborers to drive tractors had been rejected by the Department of Labor.

The letter further stated that the associations' board of directors "entertains no idea of resubmitting" a request for a hardship exception.

The Department of Labor has ruled that the braceros working in this area may not "operate or maintain power-driven self-propelled harvesting, planting or cultivating machinery, except in specific cases when found by the Secretary of Labor necessary for a temporary period to avoid undue hardship."

The Pecos Independent and Enterprise

Feb. 12, 1962

Tank tally shows over 15,000 here

(Editor's Note: Following is the first in a series of articles concerning a particular type of financial transaction in Reeves County and throughout Texas, which in the judgment of The Independent and other informed, responsible Pecos citizens, should be brought to the attention of the general public.

These articles are published in the interest of and for the benefit and betterment of Pecos and its entire citizenry.

The statistics contained in these articles are available at the Reeves County courthouse and other courthouses throughout Texas.)

Reeves County may well be the anhydrous ammonia tank capital of the world -- on paper that is.

A recent tally of the number of tanks that exist on paper in this county totals over 15,000.

That appears to be a lot of tanks to use for agricultural purposes when you realize that the allotment for cotton is comething less than 60,000 acres.

This means there's an ammonia tank available for every four acres of cotton. Of course the tanks also are used in the production of grain, but cotton is the big user of the tanks.

But if all these ammonia tanks were in Reeves County it would mean an ammonia tank for every four acres of cotton.

Put these 15,000 tanks, if they existed, end to end and they would stretch from Pecos to Balmorhea via Highways 17 and 290.

The location of the tanks is the big puzzler. The farmers who have signed chattel mortgages for the 500 and 1,000 gallon containers apparently do not have all of them on their property in Reeves County.

And one agreement states that the tanks "shall be located at Pecos, Texas and shall not be removed therefrom."

Fifteen thousand tanks are not to be seen in Pecos--or Reeves County for that matter.

But some farmers claim the tanks were never intended for use in Pecos or Reeves County. They further assert that this was understood when they signed for the tanks.

And the number of tanks some of the farmers have signed mortgages for borders on the fantastic. More fantastic, however, are the total liabilities assumed -- some $13 million recorded in Reeves County alone.

For example:

Why would a farmer who owns and has under lease approximately 850 acres of land want nearly 450 ammonia tanks, plus a large number of applicators?

His total indebtedness for the tanks and applicators is over $400,000 with monthly payments of nearly $7,000. This liability would be over and above any money borrowed to make his crop.

Another example:

Why would a farmer buy 272 ammonia tanks during the same month --bringing his total number of tanks owned to nearly 4500 -- when the farmer has less than 250 acres of land under lease in Reeves County?

Then there's a third farmer whose total monthly payments on tanks amounts to over $40,000 a month. Why would he go in debt for nearly $2 million for nearly 2,500 tanks and applicators?

Also, there are a certain number of farmers who owe these debts but seemingly know nothing about it.

One farmer recently discovered that he owed over $90,000 for more than 130 tanks, apparently purchased in his name without his admitted consent.

Another farmer discovered that he had bought many more tanks than he had bargained for, even though he thought a personal agreement had been understood by both parties.

One farmer was wondering how an instrument could be valid when the notary public who signed the papers had not actually acknowledged the farmer's signature.

And two persons whose signatures attest that they witnessed the farmer signing the papers were actually not in the room when he signed the papers.

While some have been pondering the plight of the farmers, other observers have been wondering about the finance companies which finance the ammonia tank transactions. There are others who ponder the possible aspect on the economy of Pecos.

Only a small percentage of the farmers in Reeves County are involved in the ammonia tank transactions. The actual number is less than 50.

There are many other counites in West Texas and the Panhandle where the transactions are comparable. For the most part, only the names have been changed.

The remainder of the farmers, it appeaqrs, have shied away from something, which one farmer said was described to him as a "sure fire thing."

Some farmers are in much deeper, financially, than others. And there are some who haven't participated in the program in months.

What do the farmers receive for buying the tanks, besides a chattel mortgage recorded at the Reeves County clerk's office? What does anyone gain by such financial transactions?

These and other questions will be explored in the next article.

The Pecos Independent and Enterprise

Feb. 19, 1962

(Editor's Note: Following is the second article concerning a particular type of financial transaction in Reeves County and throughout Texas, which in the judgment of The Independent and other informed, responsible Pecos citizens, should be brought to the attention of the general public.

These articles are published in the interest of and for the benefit and betterment of Pecos and its entire citizenry.

The statistics contained in these articles are available at the Reeves County courthouse and other courthouses throughout Texas.)

Ammonia tanks in Reeves County are big business. An amount that almost staggers the imagination--$13 million--is involved.

But the tanks also are big business on the South and High Plains, especially in Hale and Deaf Smith counties where there are approximately $7 million in chattel mortgages for tanks.

It has been noted that there are supposedly 15,000 paper tanks in Reeves County.

Some of these tanks are owned by firms in the anhydrous ammonia business in Pecos and surrounding area.

But over 14,000 of these tanks are owned, for the most part, by individuals.

Why have the farmers here invested so much money in anhydrous ammonia tanks?

Perhaps they did not appreciate the scope or the possible consequences of these unusual transactions.

However, here's one farmer's story:

He states that he was approached by a business man with a proposition. The proposition was that he was to buy a certain number of anhydrous ammonia tanks from a certain company, sign the chattel mortgage and in turn lease the tanks to the business man.

It was understood that the amount of the lease to the business man would be the same as the total monthly payments on the tanks due the finance company.

For doing this, he was to receive 10 percent of the total purchase price of the tanks in cash.

All he had to do was sign the chattel mortgage after agreeing to buy the tanks.

If, for instance, the tanks cost $80,000, he was to receive $8,000 from the business man plus the cost of the monthly payments each month.

The company manufacturing the tanks agreed that if at any time during the five-year period for which the monthly payments were due a default on his lease payment occurred, the manufacturing company would repossess the tanks as total payment.

It was further understood by the individual that his ammonia tanks were not for use in Reeves County.

Some of the Reeves County farmers say their tanks are in use on the Plains, where there also is an abundance of ammonia tanks.
In Hale County, for instance, a man with nearly $2 million worth of chattel mortgages for ammonia tanks registered in Reeves County has over $1 million worth of chattel mortgages for tanks in Hale County.

And in Deaf Smith County, where Hereford is the county seat, an agricultural business has over $700,000 worth of ammonia tanks, while three individuals have chattel mortgages registered covering $2 million worth of tanks.

Over 700 tanks, valued at nearly $600,000, are recorded in one person's name in Dawson County; another man has approximately 650 tanks, worth nearly half a million dollars, in Lamb County; a third man has over 550 tanks with a value of nearly $700,000 registered in Lubbock County.

And four men have chattel mortgages recorded on the same day for the same number of tanks, with the same mortgage value, in all 15 separate West Texas counties.

There are many unanswered questions concerning the ammonia tank transactions and how these financial operations could affect the economy of Reeves County.

More important, however, is the effect this sort of financial transaction might have in the future on the individuals involved.